Intentional Rounding - A Critique of the Evidence

Intentional rounding has been heavily
promoted by the prime minister David
Cameron and others and is being widely
implemented in UK hospitals. It is claimed
that the practice has a number of benefits,
including reduction in call bell use, falls and
pressure ulcers and increased satisfaction.
In this article, I will submit these claims to
close scrutiny and argue that the evidence
base is too flimsy to support the claims.
Similarly, the Friends and Family test is
being implemented despite the absence of
any supportive evidence. The Francis
report stated that change cannot be
implemented through top-down
pronouncements, and yet this is exactly
what is happening with rounding and the
Friends and Family test.
Individual nurses and nurse managers
should look more to evidence than to
political expedience when implementing
nursing policies.